Compared to these other recent releases, Monster<\/em> is far more grounded and tame. It does, however, explore the Black experience through a lens of trauma and injustice. When so many other movies and shows are doing the same, the existence of Monster <\/em>isn\u2019t enough to further the conversation it\u2019s trying to be part of. It has to prove its necessity. The film does carve out a space in that it\u2019s directed toward younger viewers who can identify with Monster\u2019s<\/em> 17-year-old protagonist. Stylistically, however, director Anthony Mandler lacks the focus and subtlety necessary to make the film sing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kelvin Harrison Jr. plays Steve Harmon, a Harlem teen who dreams of becoming a filmmaker. He goes to a good school, and is close with his parents (Jeffrey Wright and Jennifer Hudson), both college-educated professionals invested in their son\u2019s future. While working on a film project, Steve meets William King (A$AP Rocky). When King and his cousin Bobo (John David Washington) rob a bodega and shoot the owner in the process, Steve is arrested for serving as lookout for the robbery. Steve tells us his story from jail, flashing between his life before the robbery, and the events of his trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The script, adapted by Janece Shaffer, Colen C. Wiley and The 40-Year-Old Version <\/em>writer-director Radha Blank, does a fine job of setting up Steve\u2019s community and family dynamic. He\u2019s a good kid, creative and smart, looking for an artistic vision he can communicate to the world. Harrison, Hudson and Wright are warm and believable as a family unit. Harrison in particular solidly conveys Steve\u2019s optimism and, later, his fear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The story Steve\u2019s caught in, however, feels clich\u00e9. There\u2019s ample opportunity to explore the idea of perspective\u00a0\u2013 at one point Mandler uses a clip from Rashomon<\/em> to start a discussion on subjective truth. However, the film relies too much on Steve\u2019s inner monologue to communicate the emotional heft of most scenes, which flattens the narrative. Mandler also struggles with the courtroom scenes, which are cut together early on into an incomprehensible montage instead of establishing the events leading up to the robbery. It also doesn\u2019t help that the prosecuting lawyer (Paul Ben-Victor) is an obvious racist, giving Steve the titular designation of \u201cmonster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monster<\/em> isn\u2019t gratuitous in its portrayal of injustice, but it is disappointingly unspecific. There\u2019s not much to set it apart from the plethora of other movies that cover similar subject matter. Viewers could get a much more emotionally resonant experience from Barry Jenkins\u2019 If Beale Street Could Talk<\/em>, or even Just Mercy<\/em>, the biographical drama about Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative. As it is, Monster<\/em> ends up being a fairly unremarkable story about Black pain, in a space already oversaturated with it. “Monster” streams Friday on Netflix<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/monster2-1024x576.png\")
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